Inching Along

After a trip up to Indiana and all the busyness that comes with a new school year, I'm finally getting around to showing you the project I was working on this summer. (Deric's project is up next!)

In--I don't know, June?-- Deric and I were out on a Saturday running errands. In between stops I was browsing Craigslist on my phone and noticed a 6' dresser advertised at a garage sale in a neighborhood about ten minutes away. Clicked through to the ad and saw it was listed for $25-- what?! Deric needed no convincing and we swung by the garage sale to check it out in person. Once we saw it, I was ready to back out. I knew I'd be painting it and I noticed all those itty bitty squares lining the top of the dresser and thought "No way-- that'll literally take forever to paint." But Deric thought it'd be perfect for our dining room to serve as a buffet and storage, and thankfully he convinced me to bring it home.

Then it sat in our garage for a few months while we headed to CIY and camp, etc.

After some time, we figured out a game plan for the center of the dresser. We don't need fifteen or so drawers in this dresser but some shelving would be helpful. Deric took out one of the three drawer base-slider things (?) and installed basically a box from plywood. Now we have shelves and more space to stack dishes, games, or whatever we need.

Fast forward another month or two (seriously, why does it take us so long?) and we got around to sanding the dresser with a belt sander we bought off our neighbor for $20. Sanding took no time at all, but priming, painting, and poly-ing took quite a few nights. That's what we were doing every night after the Olympics were over and our lives felt incomplete. ;) We went with Inchworm by Valspar and we love the color. We hauled the dresser in one day, I outfitted it with knobs from Hobby Lobby and filled some of the drawers with games, cards, and extra table linens.

And then finally, I added the doors. Only took a few weeks to finish up what I thought might be a personal record for finishing a project. I should really get to know myself better. :) Its funny but the addition of this "buffet" makes the dining room my favorite room in the house. Its colorful and makes the room feel much less barren than it did before. Since painting this dresser, I've been eyeballing various other pieces of furniture around the house and envisioning them in different colors. But I'm not gonna get ahead of myself-- I've got various other projects I've started that I just need to finish!

As I type, I'm sitting in my paint clothes getting ready to tackle our wood-paneled, ugly-as-sin mudroom and freshen it up with a coat of paint. Four solid walls of paneling should only take what--six months to paint??